State grants boost technology at Eastern Connecticut schools

More than $540,000 in state grant money will help Colchester increase its Internet bandwidth and bring more computers into classrooms.

Other districts in Eastern Connecticut are also in line for state funding for technology upgrades. The state plans to fund $24 million in grant requests for technology upgrades in schools across Connecticut.

The state Department of Education received 128 applications from 126 cities and towns. Requests far exceeded the original $10 million grant allocation, which prompted the state to seek additional bond funding.

The department issued the technology grant request for proposals in July. Awards must be used for the purposes of purchasing new computing devices, interschool bandwidth, or interdistrict bandwidth.

Schools in Griswold, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Montville, Norwich and Sprague also will receive funding, including nearly $463,000 for Norwich.

Griswold is using its grant money to increase its number of Internet plug-ins, upgrade switches to increase Internet speed and purchase new computers.

“The reason technology is important is because all of the testing is done on computers for grades 3 through 8 and grade 11,” Griswold Superintendent Paul Smith said.

The expenditure is in response to the new Smarter Balance testing. The district will pilot the program in 2014 in preparation for its official introduction in 2015.

“They will do their testing on computers. It’s our responsibility to get them up to speed,” Smith said.

Colchester received the sixth-highest level of funding of all applications.

“The high level of funding we received is because of the comprehensive application that we submitted,” Colchester Superintendent of Schools Jeffry Mathieu said.

“Budget constraints have made it difficult to keep our infrastructure current. Our staff has done a great job, but we are still behind the curve. This grant provides much-needed technology upgrades.”

Since Connecticut’s adoption of Common Core State Standards, school districts have been changing lessons to match the new set of more rigorous benchmarks. Colchester began the revision in 2010.

Colchester’s grant proposal included wiring, servers and new switches to increase bandwidth at all four schools, as well as needed upgrades of computer labs.

“We are thrilled to receive this grant,” Director of Teaching and Learning Barbara Gilbert said. “It will provide needed infrastructure and hardware vital to supporting our students and teachers as we transition to Common Core State Standards and the accompanying computer-based Smarter Balanced assessments.”

Local teachers are looking forward to the upgrades.

“It will give our classes more access to computers,” Meaghan Kehoegreen, a math teacher at Bacon Academy, said. “It’s a great additional resource for learning.”

Greater bandwidth will allow instructors to use more teaching tools, such as videos, that thrive on high-speed networks.

“I tried to show a video in class the other day and it wouldn’t stream,” Kehoegreen said. “This will definitely help fix those kinds of issues.”

In 2014-15, every public school district will administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment System, and the state will sunset the administration of the math and English language arts CMT and CAPT tests. Districts will, however, continue to administer the science CMT and CAPT assessments.